ReForming The Center

On June 23, 2016 the United Kingdom held a vote on either to stay or leave the European Union (EU). Called Brexit this vote cast the fringes against the Center of the country, with the fringes winning by a mere 2% points with the help of multiple mistruths and the support of Russian influence operations. Today the process that vote began is in shambles, with the UK girding for a hard Brexit, preparing to fall out of the EU without any agreement in place on what happens next. This vote was the prelude to the election of extreme candidates across much of the world, from the United States to Brazil, and beyond.

This week, though, we’ve seen the first signs of moves away from the extremes. Members of both the Labor and Tory Parties left each to form a group calling itself “The Independents”. These are the seeds of what will be a movement away from the established parties to a central position within UK politics. They are also the harbingers of what’s to come in countries across the world where extremists took power.

As with all movement, all revolutions, all state-sponsored influence operations, there is a move in the opposite direction as well. One always precedes the other. We are now beginning to see that movement take shape in the UK. We may witness it transform the United States 2020 Presidential Election process as well. Where else will this movement begin to form? Where will it coalesce? Where will it fail? Where will it prevail? It’s too early to know the answers to these questions. What we do know, though, is the movement toward The Center has begun.

A key question worth asking is:

  • How do I support this movement to The Center?

Advocate for The Center. When you are in a conversation where someone starts pushing an extreme position, push back with a Central point. Never surrender The Center. As long as it’s held, built upon, and strengthened, it will endure.

Be an extreme Centrists. It’s the only way to save our democracies, our societies, our children’s lives, and honor all who gave their lives in The 20th Century’s Wars.

Alone

Crisp morning air saturates my face as I exist the terrorist threatened State Department headquarters.

I must get out of here!

Brushing gently across the back of my right shoulder, a soft hand jerks me out of my head.

“Where are we supposed to go?” my friend and fellow Presidential Management Fellow, Sarah, asks, as if I have an answer.

Why would I have an answer? I don’t know what’s going on!

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Just like today

I came across this article with newly colored images from World War I and could not help but connect the faces to the faces we see today. These are people caught up in something far bigger than any one of them, yet making their way through as best they can. It's so compelling when seeing images in black-and-white to consider it a long and forgotten time ago. Yet, when color is added, the reality comes into perspective. Connecting with our past, with those in war, is the only way to come closer to realizing what it must have meant to be there.